This is now the third time I’ve written about being harassed for being an educator, but clearly the message isn’t getting through, so I will try one more time to reason with those who spend their lives making it their duty to share their opinions regarding my profession, my areas of expertise, and disparaging the work that I do in places they have no business sharing their opinions.

“I was at a gas station when a man approached me.
Man: ‘Looks like gas prices have gone up!’
Me: ‘Um, yep? I guess so?’
Man: (looks at my UW-faculty parking sticker) ‘If I had your kind of money, I wouldn’t be complaining about gas prices, bitch.’

I was dumbfounded. A good friend noted, “Wow, eliciting sympathy purely in order to twist it…